


if it had to perish twice

by hulklinging



Series: blood and water [1]
Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 06:46:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7256683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hulklinging/pseuds/hulklinging
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fire and ice as enemies are an old cliche. And yet, people are still surprised by the outcome.</p>
<p>Kevin Day's origin story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	if it had to perish twice

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING FOR: description of someone burning. I'd say it isn't worse than what we see in canon, but thought it deserved the warning nonetheless.
> 
> This is a prelude to a larger superhero/superpowers AU. Just establishing the world a bit.
> 
> Title from Robert Frost's Fire and Ice, of course.

It is not a new story.

Fire and ice, a classic combination. A cliche, even. A fairy tale.

He looks at his two boys, one his blood and one not quite, so young and already complimenting each other. Two sides of the same coin. The future of their team, the future of their country.

A future not come by naturally, a future built under too-bright lights and too-small bodies on the operating table, but they both lived, and that's what's important.

They grow up like mirrors, always reflecting the worse of each other, even as they push each other to do their best. He pits them against each other, because that will make them stronger, that will temper them. Kevin needs Riko to teach him how to be strong, and Riko needs Kevin to teach him how to be steady.

The problem ends up being that they are both too strong and not steady enough.

Tetsuji sees it coming, he'll admit to himself much later. He sees the flames devouring the ice faster and faster, sees the fire kiss Kevin's knuckles, his cheeks, any skin left exposed. Riko pulls it back as soon as it touches his adopted brother's skin, all laughter and fake apologies. Tetsuji doesn't believe them for a second, but he thinks Kevin honestly does.

That makes it worse, really.

By the time they're old enough to join the Ravens, they're media's darlings, they're the Most Promising Young Superheroes This Nation's Ever Seen, the numbers on their cheeks not just a child's bragging anymore. Their casualty numbers rise, but so too do their successful missions, so people call it a 'necessary evil'. Tetsuji doesn't bother to correct them. He's retired now, responsible for training and reporting their missions, paperwork piling up. If Riko's mission reports often seem less than specific, that's not his problem. If Kevin grows quieter, that's typical teenage drama, and they can fight it out, like they always have.

It's a mistake. Or maybe, he can't help but think as he takes in the two survivors of the three-man mission, the mistake was letting Riko live at all. He remembers the lab, the healer pale as he pushed her to reach deeper, to bring him back, because he knows his brother won't care about his second son dying in an attempt to bring back a power their line lost the right to generations ago, but he can't stand by and let someone so similar to him die before he even gets a chance to live.

Now he's all grown up, but there's something twisted up in him, like when he was brought back all those years ago not everything came back with him.

"Report," he says. He sees Jean, a shadow of a boy, the three on his cheek the most defined part of him, flinch at the demand. Riko just shrugs.

"Day defied orders. He got caught in the crossfire." The smile grows. "We weren't able to retrieve his body. If there's anything even left."

Tetsuji doesn't bother calling his nephew out on the lie. He waves his hand at the door, dismissing them and already trying to decide the best way to explain this to the press. The Ravens were a symbol, the best licensed superhero team in the nation. They had to show a strong face, even in the wake of tragedy. That's what the world would want.

"Wipe that off your face before you go near any cameras," he says, as Riko walks out and Jean falls into step behind. He pretends not to see the handprint burnt around Jean's upper arm, like someone burning held him back as he tried to stop a friend from falling.

He can still see a hint of that smile in Riko's eyes, though, even as he mourns for the cameras.

Tetsuji turns off the tv, and remembers Kayleigh's bright eyes, her promise to change the world.

"People call us monsters, Tetsuji," she said. "I want to change that."

That's what he had wanted too, once. And maybe the world is started to see those with powers as something more. But for him, they will always be monstrous.

 

 

Kevin doesn't die caught in the crossfire between some D-list super-villain and his oldest friend. No. What happens is this -

There's no villain. There's only him and his two best friends. There's only this, a cliff and a challenge. Jean's staring, a warning in his eyes, but Kevin gets caught up in the competition. He beats Riko for the first time since they were children. And it's surprisingly easy. He stares at his hands, awed by the power he'd somehow been holding back.

It happens so quickly.

Fire burns so fast.

In his moment of distraction, Riko is on him. He grabs both of Kevin's hands, and he's smiling.

"Hold him still, Jean."

"Please, Riko."

Jean protests, but his shadows snake towards Kevin and root him to the spot anyway. Kevin feels betrayed, more by Riko than the boy behind him. He knows how much even that vocal protest will cost him, once this is all over. He tries to stay calm, but he needs his hands to work his power, needs to draw the shapes in the air that bring out that ice, ice to fight the fire that is eating away at him.

His hands are burning, and Riko is smiling, and Jean is shaking, and he thinks he might be screaming.

"You can let go now," Riko tells Jean, and the shadowy restraints disappear. Immediately, Kevin collapses, wanting to curl around his hands but not wanting the fire to spread. It's inside him, turning his bones into ash, he's sure if he looks down he'll see nothing at all. He hears as if from far away Jean asking again for Riko to stop, Riko offering to if Jean wants to take his place. Then it's just silence.

A muttered line, too quiet for Kevin to hear. But it must enrage Riko, because he's coming back over. Kevin does curl up then, because he fears Riko's hands more than he fears the fire consuming his own.

"Useless, treasonous bitch!" Riko hisses, and Kevin knows this voice. This voice comes out when Riko is pushed enough to snap. This is the voice that haunts the worst of his dreams. "Pathetic!"

Kevin tries not to listen, even as hands grab him, scorch him, get him up. He opens his eyes just in time to see Riko's face one more time, burning with a sick triumph. Then the ground beneath his feet is gone, and he's falling, falling, falling.

His powers save him. That's what he's told. That seems impossible, since his hands are little more than a skeleton's, now. The chill he's always associated with his power is gone, all but burnt away by Riko's unbridled jealousy. His power apparently had lowered his body temperature, effectively freezing him like something out of science fiction. If his injuries hadn't killed him, the shock would have, he's told, and he almost wishes it had, as he struggles to bend his fingers.

He was found by a boy he recognizes, a telekinetic he had tried to recruit for the Ravens, once. He knows this outlaw team's leader too, and his heart lurches as he thinks perhaps it's a sign, that he lived and that this man was the one who has taken him in.

He works Abby, the team's healer, as she reconstructs her hands as best she can. They don't move right, and the skin on them is too bright, like some permanent sunburn, but he hides them away in thick gloves and deep pockets and tries to remind himself that every breathe is a victory.

Around him, a nation mourns for their fallen hero. Hidden away in the Fox headquarters, he mourns with them.

But if his powers were somehow able to, in his moment of need, manifest without conscious thought, then they must exist somewhere within him. He forces himself through hours of rehabilitation. He makes a deal with a devil, promising to stay put in exchange for somehow helping him find the same fight that Kevin had used to stay alive, drifting in that lake. He's not sure how he'll manage it, giving someone a reason to live and to care when he himself feels hollow, but it's a challenge, and he's always been one for challenges.

He runs. He helps the rest of the team train, cutting tongue making up for the fact that he can't join them. And every night he forces his fingers into movements that used to be second nature, hoping that he's done enough, that tonight will be the night that frost appears at his fingertips.

Nothing.

That's okay. He has time. He will find it in himself again, that ice at his core. He will find it, he must, because one day he knows he'll find himself in front of Riko again.

This time, he'll show him.

Ice can burn just as well.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also [hulklinging](http://hulklinging.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


End file.
